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THE BATTLE 
OF ELIZABETH TOWN 



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AN ADDRESS 



Delivered June 8, 1905 



WILLIAM H. COPvBlN 



AT 



ELIZABETH. N. J. 



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Before the Boudinot Chapter of the Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution and visiting 
Delegates from the other Chapters of the State 
of New Jersey and from other States ^ ^ 









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THE BATTLE 
OF ELIZABETH TOWN 



AN ADDRESS 
Delivered June 8, 1905 



BY 



WILLIAM Hi^ORBlN 



AT 



ELIZABETH. N. J. 



Before the Boudinot Chapter of the Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution and visiting 
Delegates from the other Chapters of the State 
of New Jersey and from other States ^ ^ 



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El 24-1 



THE BATTLE OF ELIZABETHTOWN 



THE startling invasion of this Town by the English 
and Hessian troops, under General Knyphausen, 
125 years ago yesterday morning, and the exciting 
and dramatic action of that day, make up what is often 
called the Battle of Elizabeth Town ; and certainly this Town 
has never seen, before or since, so large a body of troops 
in array as composed the British Army of horse, foot and 
artillery which invaded and completely overwhelmed the 
little village on that June morning. It outnumbered all 
the people of the village several times over. A large part 
were regulars of the British Army, including the Coldstream 
Guards Regiment, famous then as now. 

Captain DeHart says an eye-witness of the passage 
of the troops through the village describes it as a most beau- 
tiful and impressive sight. 

At the head of the column marched a squadron of the 
Dragoon Regiment, known as the Queen's Rangers, with 
glittering helmets, their swords drawn. They were mounted 
on large and beautiful horses ; then followed the infantry, 
composed of Hessians and English troops, the whole body 
amounting to nearly 6,000 men, and every man, horseman 
and foot, clad in new -uniforms, complete in panoply, and 
gorgeous with burnished brass and polished steel. 

There was little to resist this powerful force. Twelve 
men, to be sure, had been stationed by Colonel Dayton at 
the Cross Roads to meet the advance, which they did, firing 
their flint-locks into the face of the invading column as 
soon as it appeared. 

By this first volley they mortally wounded Brigadier- 
General Stirling, the same who, as Colonel Stirling, had 
the previous year burned the barracks and the Presbyterian 



parsonage on Cherry street, the Academy in Broad street, 
and Stephen Crane's Ferry House and a blacksmith shop. 

There was no serious attempt to resist the enemy here. 
General Maxwell, who was in command of the Jersey Bri- 
gade, wrote very frankly: 

"I thought Elizabeth Town would be an improper place 
for me. I therefore retired toward Connecticut Farms." 

The General was a brave man, but he was discreet, too. 

The invading army pushed on up Elizabeth avenue, 
turned up Broad street, then into West Jersey street and the 
Galloping Hill Road to Connecticut Farms, the alarm mean- 
time preceding them. The militia were gathering from 
every side and swarming around the advance, and the Con- 
tinentals were marching forth from Morristown to Short 
Hills to meet the foe. The head of the English column 
began to encounter a bush-whacking fire from roads and 
trees and defiles until they came to a standstill and formed 
for action at Connecticut Farms. 

Colonel Dayton, with his Elizabeth Town regiment, 
made a stand there and joined forces with the rest of Gen- 
eral Maxwell's Brigade, and the real battle began, which 
continued till nightfall, between the Farms and Springfield, 
followed by the British retreat to Elizabeth Town. 

Of course Knyphausen burned the parsonage, and, 
indeed, the whole village of Connecticut Farms, as he re- 
tired, and, in fact, after pillaging, he also burned the farm- 
houses on the road back to the Point. 

It is difficult for us to understand at this day how it 
was possible for a well-trained regular army to deliberately 
pillage and burn churches, schools and the dwellings occu- 
pied by helpless and unoffending women and children ; but 
that was the strategy of those days. The poor, humble 
country side was laid waste. 

Governor Livingston, in an address to the General 
Assembly, said: 

"I deplore with you the desolation spread through this 
part of the State by an unrelenting enemy, who have indeed 
marked their progress with a devastation unknown to civi- 



lized nations, and evincive of the most implacable ven- 
geance." 

The Committee of Congress appointed to inquire into 
the conduct of the enemy reported, in April, 1777, that "in 
every place where the enemy has been there are heavy com- 
plaints of opprssion, insult and injury suffered by the in- 
habitants. * * * The whole track of the British Army 
is marked with desolation and a wanton destruction of 
property, particularly through Westchester County, and the 
towns of Newark, EHzabeth Town, Woodbridge, Princeton 
and Trenton, in New Jersey. The fences destroyed, houses 
deserted, pulled in pieces or consumed by fire, and the gen- 
eral face of waste and devastation spread over a rich and 
once well-cultivated and well-inhabited country, would affect 
the most unfeeling with compassion for the unhappy suf- 
ferers, and with indignation and resentment against the 
barbarous ravagers." 

The proud army that invaded Elizabeth Town did not 
escape without punishment. A harrassing fire was kept up 
against them until night. Their losses were severe, and 
the movement was checked and baffled. 

At ten o'clock at night, covered by a thick darkness, the 
whole army took up its retreat from Connecticut Farms. 
Lieutenant Mathew, of the Coldstream Guards, gives this 
acount of that retreat : 

"It was so exceedingly dark, and there was such strict 
silence observed, that one regiment could not perceive the 
adjoining regiment going off. It was the darkest night I 
can remember in my life, with the most heavy rain, thunder 
and lightning known in this country for many years. It 
rained harder, I think, than I ever knew, and thundered 
and lightened so severely as to frighten the horses, and 
once or twice the whole army halted, being deprived of 
sight for a time. Nothing more awful than this retreat can 
be imagined; the darkness of the night, the houses at Con- 
necticut Farms, which we had set fire to, in a blaze, the 
dead bodies which the fire or the lightning showed you 



now and then on the road, and the dread of an enemy com- 
pleted the scene of horror." 

The retreat continued till the army reached the shore 
of Staten Island Sound at Elizabethport, where they en- 
camped. 

The Americans having been mistakenly informed that 
the enemy had returned to Staten Island, leaving only 500 
men at Elizabeth Town Point, General Hand, with 1,500 
men, was sent down to capture the 500, or, in the words of 
his orders, to "go down and bring up those fellows at the 
Point." 

General Hand formed in three columns and attacked 
them on the morning of June 8th at the Cross Roads, 
driving back the English Twenty-second Regiment. But 
it was soon learned that the enemy's entire force was still 
there, and General Hand retired. The British Army con- 
tinued on this ground for two weeks. During this period 
the Americans kept up a continual firing upon the British 
pickets. Finally, on June 23d, the British made their sec- 
ond advance to Springfield, were again checked, and again 
retired, this time continuing their retreat to Staten Island. 
This ended the affair of June, 1780, the anniversary of 
which we now celebrate. 

But this was not the real Battle of Elizabeth Town. It 
was but an incident in the bitter strife in which this border- 
line village was involved for eight long years. 

Preparation for the real conflict here began soon after 
the Boston Tea Party, and war was really declared by the 
Freeholders of Elizabeth in Town Meeting, held at the 
Court House, December 6, 1774, with Stephen Crane in 
the chair, when they elected a committee of thirty-two mem- 
bers to urge matters before Congress and do other needful 
things. It was designated the "Committee of Observation." 
It might well have been called the "Committee of Observa- 
tion, Decision and Execution," for it took matters strongly 
in hand, and for the next eight years of war the worthy 
men who composed it formed a beneficent "ring," which 
ruled the Town firmly and wisely. Seven men were also 



elected as members of the Essex County Committee of Cor- 
respondence. Upon these committees were : John DeHart, 
William Livingston, Elias Boudinot, Elias Dayton, Abra- 
ham Clark, and other distinguished names. 

It is interesting to note how many of the names on 
these committees survive in the community to the present 
day : Hampton, Williamson, Woodruff, Spencer, Ross, 
Thomas, Hetfield, Clark, Ogden, Townley, Miller, Marsh, 
Potter, Wynants, Halsey and Williams. 

That Town Meeting, by solemn vote and immediate 
action, proceeded to "commit to the flames before the Court 
House, with the universal approbation of a numerous con- 
course of people," two certain pernicious pamphlets calcu- 
lated to sow seeds of disunion, and intended to facilitate 
the scheme of the British Ministry for enslaving the colo- 
nies, and they voted their "detestation and abhorrence of 
such infamous publications." 

And I here remark that the patriotism of Elizabeth was, 
from the first, led and directed by men of high intelligence 
and capacity. 

The Town (which extended from the Sound to the 
Passaic River, and from Rahway to Newark, and embraced 
practically all of the present Union County) contained a 
notable number of men of ability and learning. Three Gov- 
ernors and scores of generals, colonels, captains and repre- 
sentatives, were afterwards chosen from the men and boys 
who then lived at Elizabeth Town. 

The early Town Meetings of the Freeholders, while 
Revolutionary to the last degree, were no mobs. They were 
intense with feeling, but orderly, and their action was taken 
in admirably framed utterances, drawn up by educated men 
full of zeal, but not lacking in judgment. 

And it is to be noted that the most uncompromising 
patriots were these same most highly accomplished men. 

Livingston, Dayton, Barber, Clark, Boudinot, Caldwell 
and their associates represented the best intellect and the 
highest virtue of the community as well as its most aggres- 
sive patriotism. 



The great majority of the people were in sympathy 
with the Revolutionary movement, but it was not unani- 
mous. Some stood by the Crown. 

Those connected with the Church of England found 
their church embarrassed. Their clergymen were bound 
by the oath of conformity and allegiance to support and 
defend the measures of the Crown, which led many preju- 
diced partisans of popular government and many of the 
common people to believe that a churchman and a foe to 
liberty were synonymous terms. 

The worthy Dr. Chandler, Rector of St. John's Church, 
strongly supported the King. He found his situation so un- 
comfortable that he retired to England, not to return for 
ten years. The congregation became scattered. The in- 
terior of the church was destroyed, its pews and floors torn 
up and burned, and the building converted into a stable by 
the horsemen. The bitterness and divisions engendered by 
the war were most distressing. As time passed the division 
became sharper, sundering families and leading to treachery, 
arson, plunder, and a long train of miseries. The real 
Battle of Elizabeth Town was a struggle with these condi- 
tions. 

The Town was intensely enlisted in the patriot cause. 
Finding Staten Island to sympathize with the Crown, they 
cut off dealings with Staten Islanders, and when one of 
them, James Johnson, came up the creek with his oyster 
boat and attempted to sell his freight at the Broad street 
bridge, they promptly attached a span of horses to the craft 
and hauled it up the street to the Court House. They 
warned all Tories, erected a gallows and fixed up a liberty 
pole in the middle of the Town. When news of bloodshed 
at Lexington came, the Town was ablaze and the young 
men were eager for the fray. As the Massachusetts delega- 
tion to Congress passed through New Jersey, the gentle- 
men and militia of the Town met them three miles out of 
Town and escorted them on their way with great enthusi- 
asm. Gunpowder was scarce. This Town began to make 
it and forward it to New England, where the war was on. 



the committee offering large prizes to hasten the deliveries 
of gunpowder and saltpetre. 

As early as October, 1775, sixteen companies of foot 
and one of horse, belonging to this Borough, were reviewed 
here on parade "and made a very handsome appearance." 
Two months later "the Lady of His Excellency, General 
Washington," with others, passed through on their way to 
Cambridge, and were escorted by the Elizabeth Town Light 
Horse and a great number of gentlement and ladies. Mrs. 
Washington traveled the whole distance from Virginia to 
Cambridge in her own conveyance — "a chariot and four, 
with black postillions in scarlet and white liveries." 

Congress established a recruiting agency and the head- 
quarters of a regiment of regulars at Elizabeth Town. 
Colonel William Alexander (Lord Stirling) was in com- 
mand. Active hostilities soon began. The Committee of 
Observation, Stirling assisting, with boats, put out to sea, 
bombarded and took a transport heavily loaded with sup- 
plies for the British troops, and brought her to Elizabeth 
Town. 

A powder mill was built, and Colonel Dayton's regi- 
ment was organized. 

When the Declaration of Independence was drawn up, 
Abraham Clark, of Elizabeth Town, was on hand as one 
of the signers. He was a religious and also a plucky man. 
He wrote : "As to my title I know not yet whether it will 
be honorable or dishonorable. * * * Perhaps our Con- 
gress will be exalted on a high gallows. Nothing short of 
the Almighty power of God can save us." But he signed it. 
The very time of the Declaration of Independence was 
one of serious alarm in Elizabeth Town. General Howe 
was landing troops on Staten Island. The Staten Islanders, 
militia and all, turned Tories, and welcomed the British 
troops, and the Island became a nest of Tories and a resort 
for Loyalists thenceforward. The English approached 
Elizabethport, but were met and driven back. On the night 
of July 4th, 1776, two young men of this city crossed the 
Kills in a canoe and fired on the British regulars, but were. 



of course, immediately driven back. This is probably the 
first skirmish after the Declaration of Independence. 

An immediate attack was at this time expected, and 
every one who could bear arms was summoned to the de- 
fense. As Staten Island became a British camp, so Eliza- 
bethtown soon became a point of observation and defense 
for the Americans. A chain of strong works was thrown 
up at Elizabeth Town Point. Troops were collected here, 
and afterwards this village became the point for exchange 
of prisoners of war. The Hessians, captured at Trenton 
and its vicinity, were brought here for exchange. 

It was finally provided by law that one-half of the in- 
habitants were to be always on duty to guard Elizabeth 
Town, Newark, and other towns. Nothing could better 
illustrate the serious condition of the State's affairs and 
the great strain put upon its resources than this draft of 
one-half of all the able-bodied men to be always on guard. 

But the forces were not continuously kept here. They 
were, after a time, reduced to a mere company of guards. 
Then began a series of forays from Staten Island to seize 
cattle and other plunder, and to capture and carry off citi- 
zens as prisoners and hostages, followed by reprisals, fights, 
burnings and murders. Property was insecure, life in 
danger and fears were constant. Many people removed 
their families and effects beyond the Short Hills. 

In the dark days of the war, after the fall of Fort 
Washington and Fort Lee, General Washington fell back 
to New Brunswick, passing through this town with the 
remnant of his army, consisting of hardly 3,500 men. He 
was closely followed by Lord Cornwallis. 

The British took formal occupation of the Town No- 
vember 30, 1776. Then, indeed, the people were in despair. 
The cause seemed hopeless. As one shrewd man aftrwards 
observed : 

"When the British Army overran the State of New 
Jersey in the closing part of the year 1776, the whole popu- 
lation could have been bought for eighteen pence a head." 



It did look so, but the witty gentleman was mistaken. 
There was a lot of fight left in the rebels. Within six weeks 
Washington had won the battles of Trenton and Princeton, 
and strengthened and consolidated his army at Morristown 
and put an entirely new face on the situation. 

The Jersey militia had made a respectable fight be- 
tween Springfield and Chatham, and had learned that to 
meet British regulars was not necessarily to be whipped. 

The enemy soon abandoned the Town, and it was again 
garrisoned by the militia and resumed its experience of 
forays, alarms, skirmishes and fights. Its militia were fre- 
quently called out to help their neighbors. They fought 
at Woodbridge, at Scotch Plains, at Westfield and wherever 
called. 

During all this time the people suffered in their homes 
and persons. A letter from Governor Livingston gives a 
glimpse of what the ladies had to put up with: 

"Kate has been to Elizabeth Town, found our house 
in a most ruinous state. General Dickinson had stationed 
a captain with his artillery company in it. * * * Every- 
thing is carried off that mamma had collected for her ac- 
commodation, so that it is impossible for her to go down 
to have the grapes and other things secured. The very 
hinges, locks and panes of glass are taken away." The house 
thus bemoaned by the Governor is Liberty Hall, the pres- 
ent residence of Senator Kean, which Livingston had built 
for his home in 1772. What a graphic picture. Not pots 
and pans and kettles enough left to put up the fall preserves, 
to say nothing of a supply of sugar. 

The burnings, which so embittered the people of this 
place, began in the early part of 1779, when the baffling 
of an attempt of Colonel Stirling to capture Governor Liv- 
ingston so enraged his force that they burned the Academy, 
the Parsonage, the barracks, the Ferry House and a black- 
smith's shop. As is well known, the First Church and the 
Court House were burned the following year by an in- 
vading party of soldiers and Tories. 



One writer has remarked that the wonder is that any- 
body remained or attempted to live in Elizabeth Town 
during the perils of that war. The Town was under a 
real reign of terror in the winter of 1779 and '80, and the 
culmination of all their fears was the appalling advance of 
Knyphausen on this day one hundred and twenty-five years 
ago. How their hearts must have failed them as the 
mothers, who had survived five years of fears and alarms, 
looked out upon the passing by of this great and powerful 
army. Their husbands and sons were gone — some to dis- 
tant armies, some among the militia hastily gathering in the 
hills, some fallen in battle. As they gazed out over the 
blackened ruins of their church and their homes, what won- 
der if they despaired. But they were not utterly cast down ; 
they soon saw that army in retreat, baffled. They suffered a 
year or two more of trouble and poverty, which, alas, had 
become their daily food, and then all was peace. 

Dr. Johnson once said that a man was not on his oath 
when he was writing epitaphs or uttering words of pane- 
gyric. So I suppose we are not exactly on the witness 
stand in characterizing the men and women of those days. 
We shall be allowed some patriotic license in telling the 
facts. But we will not claim it. The simple, true story is 
more impressive. 

There is not lacking evidence that the patriots of 
those days suffered the same human weaknesses that we 
see in ourselves and our neighbors to-day. But their virtues 
were very real. They had been trained to do things for 
themselves. They were, therefore, self-reliant and brave. 
They were trained to work and to do the humble duties of 
every day without question and because they were duties. 
They were, therefore, ready, for anything that bore the 
stamp of duty upon it. 

They did not all see so clearly at first what the rebel- 
lion meant and whereunto it would grow, but they learned. 
Their knowledge grew with the passing years and their 
patriotism grew with their knowledge. They understood 
more clearly; they committed themselves more irrevocably 

12 



to the great revolution. The meaning of the freedom 
they were gaining became more plain and its value more 
essential in their eyes. 

They had no thirst for military spoils or glory. They 
disliked military service, and much preferred to be at home 
plowing, sowing and reaping. They coveted no man's land, 
no new possessions. 

Beware of that man of peace who does not like war, 
but when it comes, takes part in it to defend his home. 
Look out for the man who does not belong to the militia 
company in time of peace, but is a volunteer when the war 
breaks out. Whether he is an American, or a Boer, or a 
Japanese, watch him. 

Our country has given remarkable evidence of the 
dangerous character of that kind of man as a fighter. 

General Grant once remarked while in this Town, that 
he would not cross Broad street to see the greatest military 
parade ever formed ; that he never had fancied military 
display, and disliked all that it stood for. And yet that man, 
fighting battles without a sash or sword, driving upon the 
battlefield in a buggy when he was too lame to ride a horse, 
campaigning, if we can trust the photographs, with no better 
coat than a soldier's blouse, and that neither buttoned nor 
belted ; that man was intensely patriotic ; he had a love for 
and a simple faith in his country that was his most marked 
characteristic. In peace, unostentatious, quiet and kindly, 
and busied with everyday duties ; in war, he was terrible as 
an army with banners. 

The same spirit of peace provoked to war, was shown 
quite as notably by the volunteers in our Civil War as by 
their grandfathers of the Revolution. 

It is the spirit of the aroused, virtuous citizen who 
thinks and reasons for himself. When he fights, it is not 
for love of strife or hope of fame, but for the righteous 
cause which his judgment approves and his faith holds 
sacred. He fights for home, for State, for his religious 
beliefs. 

13 



Shakespeare has given us this idea: "He is not great 
who is not greatly good." 

Looking back from this length of view, we can see 
that our forefathers, who won Independence and Liberty for 
us, were God-fearing, faithful, steadfast and dutiful. And 
these are the qualities that mark them as truly great, and 
make them worthy to be had in perpetual veneration. 




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